Subjetividades maternas: as mães do GAIA e as práticas de consumo alimentar no Facebook

Abstract

This research has as a scenario the consumption relations in which mothers, through their collective practices, point to the intersections between maternal subjectivities and consumption. From a theoretical framework guided by Maternal Studies (MENDONÇA, 2014) and by Consumer Studies, which articulates the fields of communication, culture, and consumption (BARBOSA; CAMPBELL, 2006; DOUGLAS; ISHERWOOD, 2004; SLATER, 2002; MILLER, 2002; 2011; 2013; MILLER et al, 2019), we understand that social practices involve the act of consuming as eminently cultural and, therefore, they are imbricated in the daily lives of social agents, demonstrating their values, established or intended relationships, as well as their subjectivities. Through an ethnography for the internet (HINE, 2015), we analyzed the consumption practices in GAIA - Support Group for Food Introduction. So, we ask the following question: what are the possible relationships between the mothers' consumption practices and the perception of their maternal subjectivities? We emphasize that motherhood and maternage comprise different meanings that help us reflect on the production and propagation of subjectivities and their possible relationships with consumption practices, among them the activism (FONTENELLE, 2017; POZZEBON, 2018; PORTILHO, 2003). Then, we observed that GAIA, as a collective of mothers on Facebook, is a space outlined by the importance of official information on food introduction, the specificity of the functioning of the community, and the effective interaction of the individuals involved in its constitution. Women have fostered consumer activism through social networks, transforming them into spaces for sharing subjectivities inherent to motherhood, in some aspects reflecting on the maternal ideal developed by the patriarchal order. The consumption practices are configured into three analytical categories: a) subjectivities of maternity; b) activism in the consumption of healthy foods in the FI - Food Introduction, and; c) guides for maternal making. The ethnographic data revealed an ideal of mother who proved to be militant in healthy eating for her child, encouraging the production of meals for the family, to the detriment of industrialized products, and who exalts the child with devotion. It is possible to recognize in the performance of the devices, Zanello (2018), the continuity of the attribution of motherhood to the woman as a vocation and for the man as a recognition with merit. The Guides at GAIA, besides providing information of utmost importance for families, the guides also pointed out indicated ways of caring, accepted by the group.